This darkly humorous fictional look at the tech industry was a perfect follow-up to my recent reading of Anna Wiener's Uncanny Valley. Ms. Wiener offers an atmospheric chronicle of her gradual disillusionment with the sector. Mr. Askaripour satarizes it all in this "self-help" book, narrated by Buck, An African-American 20-something picked out from behind a Starbuck counter to become an integral part of a high tech start-up selling tools to help create the best version of our selves. Both Ms. Wiener and Mr. Askaripour point out the absurdities of the start-up culture, Mr. Askaripour goes further and pointedly highlights the absurdities and insidious nature of systemic racism in corporate America and well, America. The cringe-worthy incidents the main character "Buck" endures somehow don't dampen his extremely grounded sense of self and generosity of spirit, leaving you turning pages rapidly to discover what could possibly happen next and how Buck would handle it, and wondering how you yourself can change your part in the system.

This is a tough book to describe or recommend. It wasn't a very enjoyable reading experience but it was riveting and I ended up appreciating it more than liking it. But it may have given me an ulcer and differently made me feel very uneasy.
Darren ("Buck") is a 22 year old black man who while working at Starbucks is hired to work for a tech start-up in sales. This all white company's sales training and hazing is terrifying. Buck's life starts to change and unravel from there.
I really liked the structure of this book- it is set in five parts and they're all wildly distinct. Inserted throughout are also sales tactics from the lessons that Buck is learning and later teaching. I think these really helped with my understanding of what was happening. It is a commentary on sales culture, tech companies, institutional racism, community, and ambition.
This is unlike any other book I've read. It is being compared to The Wolf of Wall Street and that's probably a good place to start but this book goes in entirely different directions. I'm really surprised it's been picked for Jenna Bush Hager's book club but I also think this would make for fantastic discussions. I would definitely recommend this book for adventurous and open minded readers who want something different.
Thank you to Netgalley for the copy for review. My mind is blown.

Thank you net galley for the digital copy of this title, I will now be purchasing a copy for my own collection and many...MANY more to gift to friends. This book just absolutely blew me away and took me for a WILD ride. I laughed, I felt anger, I was motivated, I felt inspired, I felt infuriated, I cried... legit ugly cried at a few scenes, I felt like I wanted to hug the main character Darren, high five him, and sometimes punch him right in the face!

GET THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW! I'm serious. I could not put this book down. I know its still January but I think this will be a hard book to the top in 2021.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, because I hated Wolf of Wall Street and had heard some comparisons. But I can confidently say this is one of those rare books that beautifully walks the line between funny and important, and I enjoyed each virtual page. Black Buck managed to make me laugh out loud, get tears in my eyes, and become enraged over racism and white supremacy all within its pages. I enjoyed the sharp, witty writing and the realistic first person that made me feel like I was just listening to an old friend’s story. This was a good one! It definitely made me want to steer clear of a career in sales though...

Thank you NetGalley, Mateo Askaripour, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read this book.

“An opportunity means change. An opportunity means action. But most of all, an opportunity means the chance of failure. And it’s the potential for failure, more than failure itself, that stops so many people from beginning anything.”

BLACK BUCK
Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour is a satirical contemporary fiction about a young man named Darren. He lives in New York with his mother. Even though he was valedictorian in high school, he never went to college and became a shift leader at the local Starbucks. He doesn’t mind, he goes to work then comes home to take care of his mom and hang out with his girlfriend. One day while working his shift at Starbucks, an everyday customer walks in and orders his usual. Darren feels something unusual come over him and sells him a different drink. This customer is the CEO of a startup tech company and offers Darren a job. Darren reluctantly takes the job and is subjected to the worst abuses with the excuse that it will make him a better salesman. Darren’s nickname becomes Buck and soon becomes entangled in the company that deeply affects his personal life.

This is an absolutely incredible debut novel! I see a lot of business majors being interested in this but honestly, this book can be for anyone. It is satire, so make sure to keep it in mind as you read. But good god, it is addicting. The book dives into the lives of the Black community and people of color in New York. It shows racism in many different ways. Some of it is blatant and obvious, and sometimes it is a series of microaggressions. It shows what many have to endure on an everyday basis. There is one moment that particularly got to me. One of the men in charge is targeting Darren and is absolutely relentless. Darren thinks to himself that he would love to go off on him, but he can’t. Not because he would lose his job, but because he does not want them to view him as a stereotype. The fact that he could not stand up for himself in this situation may seem like satire but is a very real situation that many find themselves in and it is enraging.

Then there is a running sequence where every white person that comes in contact with him, tells him that he looks like a different famous Black person. This is racism. Pure and simple. It isn’t fiction. We need to do better. I applaud the author for bringing such a beautiful and diverse cast. The pacing is incredible, I did not want to put the book down no matter what range of emotions I was feeling. I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. My apologies to the publisher and author for not submitting my review sooner.

Black Buck Book Review 🏙

I want to start by saying thank you @houghtonmifflinharcourt @LIBRO.fm and @Netgalley for the free copy of Black Buck.

I started reading Black Buck last week and oh boy it did not disappoint. I thought Black Buck was refreshing and would recommend everyone to read it.

What I liked:
- How I felt about Darren “Buck” was all over the place but at the end, I understood why he did the things he did.
- I thought Mateo did a fantastic job with characters building without being too wordy.
- This book spoke about family, racism, white privileged, and harassment in America.
- I learning a lot about selling which I can use for work.
- I thought it was funny at times and sad in other parts.

What I did not like:
- The grand surprise was a unbelievable. I felt the book would have been great without it.

Overall, I thought it was a fun and interesting read. I am looking forward to more of Mateo's books.

Um, so did I just already read the Book of Year in January? I really believe I did! This book is perfection. The writing style is pure entertainment throughout, the plot is brilliant, and the ending had me say out loud, "Wow! What a read!". It's good. It's great. I have no complaints and I think everyone should read this. This was getting a lot of hype on Bookstagram, so I was excited to read it but was afraid it would not live up to the hype. It absolutely did though.

This has been compared to The Wolf of Wall Street and, to be honest, it put me off this read originally because I HATED that movie. Fortunately for me, this is about a million times better than The Wolf of Wall Street. The plot is more engaging, the characters are much more compelling, and it is a lot funnier than I think The Wolf of Wall Street was supposed to be. All of this long-windedness to say, do not let the comparison put you off because it really is nothing like that movie. I think the comparison exists because this book is about success and making money, but it is a lot more than that.

Also, speaking of that topic, the portraits of sales culture in this book are A+. The highlights on dysfunctional sales startups felt almost a little too real. Actually it was real. I have tasted that world and this was spot on. It is satire, but it is accurate. This book is also about what it means to be a POC in the very white world of tech companies. This is also accurate and profound. It is painful even while it is trying to infuse humor. It is important.

This is my favorite book of 2021 so far. I would not be surprised if it ends up on my Best of the Year lists at the end of 2021. In fact, at this point, I fully expect it to be there. It is going to be hard to top this.

First I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. For sure it's a page turner and had me hooked rigth from the beginning. Askaripour hits all the right notes about racism but also the corporate world where it's all about success and money. The story unfolds it in many ways with very well developed characters. I only can recommend reading the book

This book is a great start for an author with so much potential. It begins when a black Starbucks employee uses his ingenuity and smarts when suggesting drinking alternatives to a regular customer. Then the plot takes off when Buck, as he is so named, is hired by that customer's tech start-up.
The book is a satirical take on systemic racism and corporate functioning. What a timely book. It certainly reflects the times we are living in and the hate that can easily be recognized. The author has so much potential but I felt he might have overreached just a bit. The first half was terrific but the second tried to include a bit too much to send it over the top.
The writing was superb. I especially enjoyed his advice to the reader throughout the book. It summed up so much and conveyed good means by which to run your life. Looking forward to his next book!

3.5 stars!
My first BIPOC read of 2021! Darren is stuck in a life of boringness as a Starbucks shift supervisor and living at home with his mom. When he convinces a regular customer to try a new drink, the customer invites him to an interview for a sales position at his tech start-up. Darren is hazed into the company and begins his transformation into a salesman - whether it is for better or worse.

This novel is a satirical take on the business world in New York and the systemic racism that can be seen woven into the fabric of its environment. Darren faces repeated bouts of overt and passive aggressive racism and has to deal with them in order to keep his job and launch his career. This is the author’s debut novel and I thought he did a great job of depicting Darren’s narrative and struggles while still including parts that made me laugh out loud. The writing was full of voice and the narrator did an excellent job on the audiobook (thank you @librofm, @netgalley and @macmillan.audio). The ending drove me a little nuts, I just kind of felt like it was a letdown to Darren’s character arc but maybe fitting to the initial point the author was trying to make about racism. I also found it a little long in parts.

This riveting debut novel by Mateo Askaripour was a rollercoaster of emotions and gave me so much to think about. This satire would make a great book club choice with so much to discuss.

Greta read, one to pass onto all. A story that makes you think you can achieve anything no matter where you are from or what your circumstances are.

The story of a lone black salesman in a tech startup. A satirical story of a black man trying to make it in a mostly white corporate America. This story grabbed me from the beginning and I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t always love the main character, but I saw where he was coming from. The ending is one of those that some will love and some will hate. I for one was ok with it. It’s a very timely story in today’s climate for sure.

Wow, what a fantastic debut! I could not believe this was Askaripour’s first novel. The writing has a fun, clever bite which was my favorite aspect of Black Buck.

In this novel, we are following Darren, who has become a little too comfortable working at his Starbucks job for the past four years. This business guy Rhett frequents Darren’s Starbucks several times a day with clients, and one day Darren surprises him when he remembers his order and pitches him a drink he believes Rhett would enjoy more...he does, and is impressed enough that he offers Darren a job at his marketing company. The rest of the book follows Darren (who is now nicknamed Buck by a coworker), as he climbs the proverbial corporate ladder within his company, and the ways he lets his obsession with power affect his relationships and family.

The book is written in a satirical way, and the last 100 or so pages definitely get into outlandish territory, which explains its comparisons to Sorry to Bother You (a movie I adore!) but I really enjoyed the extreme lengths the author took Buck and the story.

In the acknowledgments in the back, Askaripour says his next novel will be extremely different, and I will definitely be looking out to see what he does next.

After going on a whirlwind journey with Darren Vender, aka Buck, in Mateo Askaripour’s brilliant debut Black Buck, I turned back to the beginning to take in his forward, “To all of those who have ever been made to feel less than, I see you.” Askaripour’s novel is a satire of white corporate America and how it treats people of color. The overt racism that is the thread throughout the book and parallels what we have seen under the Trump administration, coming to a head with the entitlement and white supremacism displayed at the Capitol insurrection January 6. Photos afterward of black custodians cleaning up after the white rioters came to mind for me when reading this novel. So it’s very on point.

On a lighter note, those of us who know Starbucks will recognize and appreciate all the coffee references and inside perspective of the baristas.

I also enjoyed and appreciated this satire of startups in the business world, and how some make money despite actually producing anything useful.

I felt this novel gave me a window into racism in the business world and was a very timely read. Highly recommend. I listened to this as an audible novel and enjoyed the narration and jazz music used to punctuate sections of the book. This novel had an effervescent quality, like a fruity cocktail masking a strong drink. It goes down easily but you are left feeling like you just got a kick in the head. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an advanced reader’s copy.

I feel like this will be one of the books that everyone will be talking about in 2021.
The writing style is so different, there are a lot of witty notes that the writer wanted to spotlight. It’s a satire/sales manual/self help/memoir all in one.

I loved Darren/Buck! He was so ambitious and had such positive a positive outlook, even during his struggles. When I was younger I worked in sales so I was able to relate to Buck in that sense. I only had issue with one terrible choice that he made(if you read it, you understand what I’m talking about), which absolutely broke my heart. But needless to say I rooted for Buck and wanted to see him succeed.

While reading this book my ratings went back and forth. It took me a few days after finishing the book to gather my thoughts on the story. This book has a very strong point to make and what the author did here is pretty incredible. I feel like the more white people that read books like this on the subject of modern day racism and exclusion of people of color will open us up to a more universal understanding, that will make our world a better place for everyone. Books like Black Buck that make their way into the main stream will open up doorways and open peoples eyes to the issue.

The book is a hard slap in the face and will make you feel uncomfortable at times. But it is also very necessary.

Nevertheless whatever Mateo Askaripour is selling, I’m buying.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and Mateo Askaripour for the advanced reader copy!!!

Black Buck is very current, relevant, and fresh. A satire about a young African American in the overwhelmingly white tech industry, it can be laugh out loud funny, heartbreakingly sad, and totally anger inducing. It reminds me of a cross between The Bonfire and the Vanities and Deacon King Kong. I didn't love the ending, but that's a personal preference.

Told with anxiety-provoking intensity and propulsion, this book tackles themes of power, privilege and ambition in predominantly White corporate America. On the surface, this book is about Darren or “Buck”, a Black man with potential and talent trying to get ahead in the sales world dealing with daily microaggressions and eventual blatant, hateful racism. For me, there was a deeper lesson to be learned here that was screaming for attention. Almost allegory in nature, we have our key players in the bigger puzzle, a microcosm of the deeper racial issues in our country. We meet the racist POS Clyde who put me on edge in every scene he was in and the encouraging but somehow also passively complacent Rhett who gives Darren a shot in the company but never really supports him when it matters most. A startling reminder and gut punching reality check that our fellow Black Americans will never get ahead unless White people challenge and stand up to other powerful White people. We also see these leaders in the company using "diversity" to fit their own agenda instead of doing what is best for Darren. I was extremely moved and enfuriated by this story.

This was intense and exhausting and made me uncomfortable (which I think is the point?). I felt so invested in Darren's story and truly went through alllll the emotions-- he's an early-20s Black man living a comfortable life with his mom, girlfriend, and other lifelong friends working as a manager at Starbucks. One day he's recruited by the CEO of a big startup and from there it goes on and explores a lot looking at racism, white privilege, stereotypes, the lack of BIPOC individuals in sales and startups. I honestly felt like it could have been a bit longer because there were a few pretty big events that I felt seemed quickly glossed over. Overall I loved the writing, the pace of the story, and the cast of supporting characters.

Black Buck is the story of Darren, a Starbucks employee who gets recruited as a salesman at a very weird but successful startup. Throughout the book, we watch Darren as he learns about sales and work-life balance. The book is well written, quick paced, and dives deep into the topics of race, class, success and ambition. I enjoyed the book, and appreciated the vision of Mateo Askaripour, as its written as almost a self help / sales manual using Darren's voice.

I am happy this book was selected as a Read With Jenna pick because I think the book sparks important conversations on race and how we can change systems. Definitely recommend!

TW: use of the "r" word and racism

Thank you to Mateo Askaripour, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and NetGalley for providing a copy to review!